Cloud-Native Platform Engineer – Kubernetes & AI Network Platform

Telence Solutions is a fast-growing telecom and network consulting firm. We deliver design, integration, migration and operational support for service providers, utilities and enterprises across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We are also building the Autonomic Network Engine (ANE), an AI-driven network management platform that takes a network fault from alarm to verified fix, with engineers approving every change.
The Opportunity
We’re looking for a hands-on platform engineer who lives and breathes Kubernetes, containers and Linux. You’ll build and run the cloud-native foundation of ANE, from on-premises and air-gapped deployments to AWS. You’ll also support customer engagements where we deploy and harden Kubernetes environments. This is a chance to shape a product from an early stage and work alongside some of the most experienced network engineers in the industry.
Key Responsibilities
Design, deploy and operate production Kubernetes clusters on-premises, air-gapped and in the cloud (AWS EKS, Azure AKS).
Containerize and run ANE’s microservices, including its AI and telemetry components, with a focus on reliability, security and performance.
Build and maintain CI/CD and GitOps pipelines using tools such as ArgoCD, Helm and GitHub Actions or GitLab CI.
Automate infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible and scripting (Bash, Python).
Manage Kubernetes networking and security: CNI plugins (Calico, Cilium), ingress, service meshes, network policies, RBAC and secrets management.
Set up observability with Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch or OpenTelemetry, and drive incident response and root-cause analysis.
Package ANE for customer deployment, including on-premises installs, upgrades and GPU-enabled nodes for AI workloads.
Support customer Kubernetes engagements: deployments, networking deep dives, multi-tenant designs and knowledge transfer.
Write clear documentation and runbooks, and mentor team members on cloud-native practices.
Required Qualifications
5+ years of hands-on Linux systems experience (RHEL, Ubuntu): administration, troubleshooting and performance tuning.
3+ years running Kubernetes in production, including cluster setup, upgrades and day-2 operations.
Strong experience with containers (Docker, containerd) and building secure, efficient images.
Solid understanding of microservices architecture: service discovery, APIs, messaging (e.g., Kafka), scaling and resilience patterns.
Experience with Helm, GitOps and CI/CD pipelines.
Infrastructure as code with Terraform and/or Ansible.
Scripting in Bash and Python.
Good grasp of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, firewalls and VPNs.
Preferred Qualifications
CKA, CKAD or CKS certification.
Experience with air-gapped or highly regulated deployments (telecom, utilities, government).
Experience running GPU workloads or AI/ML models on Kubernetes.
Familiarity with telecom or network automation (NETCONF/YANG, gNMI, streaming telemetry).
Knowledge of AWS or Azure networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, ExpressRoute).
Why Join Telence?
Build a real product: help shape ANE from an early stage, not maintain someone else’s legacy.
Learn from the best: work alongside triple-CCIEs, JNCIEs and Nokia Service Router Architects.
Global team, flexible work: remote-first, with colleagues across four regions.
Grow with us: as ANE scales, so does your role.

Work arrangement
Yes